Betsy DeVos, President-Elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education, delivered a preview of her likely answers at Tuesday's Senate confirmation hearing at a speech she gave in 2015 in Austin, Texas. Speaking at SXSWedu (South by Southwest education conference), she called out the Luddites of the education industry who cling to a Model T world in the era of Tesla.

“The dollars should follow every single child,” DeVos said, stabbing away at what she sees as an antiquated government-down system that sends money to school buildings and districts and rejects the notion of choice for all students and parents.

“Teaching is hard. It takes a lot of skill. Not everyone who tries can do it well. We need to admit that and act accordingly. We should reward and respect great teachers by paying them more, and we should stop rewarding seniority over effectiveness.”

On deciding school boundaries by ZIP Code:

“If you don’t live in an area with good public schools, you can move to a different place, if you have the financial means to do so. If you don’t, you’re screwed. If your local public schools aren’t very good, but you have the cash, you can send your kids to a higher-performing private school. But, if you don’t have the financial resources, you are again screwed. Don’t worry about well-off people, they’ll find a way to get a good education for their children. But if ‘the least of these’ are denied an equal opportunity - and they are - then our education industry is failing - and it is.”

On vouchers:

“Let the education dollars follow each child, instead of forcing the child to follow the dollars. This is pretty straightforward. And it’s how you go from a closed system to an open system that encourages innovation. People deserve choices and options.”

On the range of choices in an open system she envisions:

· Traditional public schools

· Public school choice

· Charter schools

· Virtual schools and online learning

· Private and parochial schools

· Home school

· Course choice

· Blended options of all the above

· And perhaps most importantly, new approaches to learning that have yet to be imagined or developed.

On the need to alter the status quo:

“We need to overcome the political class that keeps us bound to a ridiculously antiquated status quo. I believe this revolution will be fueled by the younger generation. The older generations are too wedded to political parties, too wedded to romantic memories of what education was like when they were kids, and too wedded to the status quo group that clings to power.”

On the battle:

“This is not a battle of Left vs. Right, or Democrat vs. Republican. It’s a battle of Industrial Age vs. the Digital Age. It’s the Model T vs. the Tesla. It’s the old factory model vs. the new internet model. It’s the Luddites vs. the future.”

On technology:

“We are the beneficiaries of start-ups, ventures, and innovation in every other area of life, but we don’t have that in education because it’s a closed system, a closed industry, a closed market. It’s a monopoly. It’s a dead end. And the best and brightest innovators and risk-takers steer way clear of it. As long as education remains a closed system, we will never see the education equivalents of Google, Facebook, Amazon, PayPal, Wikipedia or Uber. We won’t see any real innovation that benefits more than a handful of students. Everyone knows that monopolies suffocate progress.”

On politicians:

“I don’t care who the winners or losers are in the current partisan political debate. That is immaterial. If we can manage to break free, to open the system and embrace all choices for education, we will be the first to give politicians awards to hang on their office walls.”

On freedom:

“If you claim you are for freedom…if you claim to be an innovator or you value innovation…if you claim to be an entrepreneur...if you claim to believe in equal opportunity…if you claim to embrace social justice…then you have to embrace educational choice, and you have to embrace opening up our closed education delivery system.”